Above all, note that those who expected from this Mudrunner 2 (which does not say its name) better scripting will be at their expense. There are no characters to meet, no cutscenes worthy of the name, and no real storyline. The game starts with a simple little text informing us that a catastrophic flood has occurred, and that our help is needed to repair a bridge. Some players may think that a real scenario and a real scene would be totally useless for what appears to be a simple simulation of trucks, but they would be wrong. Because in reality, SnowRunner can almost be considered an RPG. First of all, we are entitled to a semi-open world, made up of three main regions: Michigan, Alaska and Taimyr. If it is useless to present the first two, it will be specified all the same that the third is located in central Siberia. The theme of cold is present, but don't believe that the game takes place entirely under the snow. On this point, the title and the jacket are slightly misleading… and that's good!
We are delighted to find the muddy grounds of the previous episode, and to wade through more varied materials than ever. Roads, earth, mud, thick mud, water, rocky scree, snow and ice thus form the range of paths to be traveled. Just like the first Ubisoft action-RPG, SnowRunner offers us watchtowers to unlock, in order to gradually reveal the map. These towers are often located in hard-to-reach environments, but conquering them clears the fog of war, revealing the location of objectives to complete, upgrades to pick up, vehicles and more. trailers to requisition. Objectives can be Contracts, Tasks or Challenges, which would otherwise be called Main Quests, Side Quests and… Challenges. Even if the developers have tried to make an effort, the variety is not entirely there. Most of the time, the objectives are limited to picking up a cargo at point A in the right vehicle, and delivering it to point B.
SAY TRUCK!
As the missions are completed, we earn money and experience, in order to buy new vehicles and increase our driver rank, which gives us access to ever bigger trucks, spare parts. ever more equipment and even to additional objectives. Gas stations allow you to refuel, while garages are used not only to repair damaged vehicles, but also to improve our toys (engines, gearboxes, suspensions, tires, etc.), to personalize them, or to buy and sell more vehicles. There are still about forty in all, which is more than the number of weapons in some role-playing games. Arrived at this stage of the test, you may say to yourself that this analogy has lasted long enough, and that it is moreover half crap since there are no enemies to fight in SnowRunner. Think again ! Enemies, you will meet plenty of them. Except that here they take the form of a badly placed rock, a ford that is a little too deep, a marsh that you did not expect to find at the bend of a bend, a muddy area too wide or too steep a slope. Beyond the postman quests that are a little too basic, it is indeed in driving on difficult terrain that the heart of the gameplay lies.
This daily struggle that was the essence of Spintires Mudrunner is even more enjoyable in SnowRunner, because the game has improved on many points. The graphics are much better, the cockpit view finally looks like something, the camera now behaves correctly, and the game is generally clearer and more accessible. It feels good !
The physics are very well managed, and you will have to use the various tools at your disposal wisely so as not to find yourself permanently stuck. Here, we fight with handbrake, low gear, all-wheel drive and differential lock. But your most precious ally remains the winch, which you can hang on a nearby tree, in order to more easily extract the vehicle from the mess in which you have accidentally placed it. This daily struggle that was the essence of Spintires Mudrunner is even more enjoyable in SnowRunner, because the game has improved on many points. The graphics are much better, the cockpit view finally looks like something, the camera now behaves correctly, and the game is generally clearer and more accessible. It feels good ! There is no point, however, in crying miracles and jumping on the hype train too quickly, because the series still has some room for improvement. Beyond the lack of real scripting, we can for example regret that the cooperative mode commits a huge blunder: the progress made during a game is only saved for the host of the session! We can also deplore here and there the presence of some bugs (for example a contract not validated when all the conditions are met), some of which are downright inherited from the very first Spintires (the badly recognized shuttlecocks in particular). The publisher and the development studio promise us that patches are on the way. We just have to hope that they don't get bogged down during the journey!
